Thursday, October 29, 2009

From Las Vegas to Mexico

The Las Vegas Sun reports on an investigation by the ATF tying Las Vegas gun shops to the Mexican drug wars. WARNING: the story contains the following quote, "Nationally, more than 90 percent of the guns seized..." Please disregard.

The agents placed Claudio Caesar “Zorra” Penunuri at the center of a gun smuggling ring from here to Southern California and then south into Mexico. He provided the more than $100,000 in cash to purchase 28 rifles and pistols from Las Vegas gun dealers, and the smuggling routes to ship them illegally into the hands of violent Mexican drug cartels.

His case is a capstone to a burgeoning effort by local ATF agents as part of a two-year national program launched in Washington called Project Gunrunner. Its aim: Stem the flow of illegal U.S. guns into Mexico and bring down violence along the Rio Grande, where the cartels are warring over new drug enterprises in this country.

What do you think it means? Do you think in Las Vegas, and in California in spite of their laws, there are a number of gun shops known to be "user friendly," places where straw purchases and clearly questionable transactions can take place? These would be licensed gun dealers who agree with AztecRed who said "only children and Democrats believe in the spirit of the law." I suppose the type of gun dealer I'm talking about protest vehemently that he's not doing anything illegal. What do you think?

And of course there are the good guys.

Local gun dealers said they are aware of increased government enforcement, and Bob Irwin, owner of The Gun Store, said “the problem is more noticeable now. I hope they put them away for quite awhile.”

Irwin described a recent case in which his staff notified ATF that a customer was using a fake ID. Agents allowed the store to sell the gun — after they placed a monitoring device on the weapon. “Then they followed the gun to the border and arrested him just before he went across,” Irwin said.

“So we try to help,” Irwin said. “We have no interest in helping drug cartels shoot each other.”

What's your opinion? Do you think the ATF is moving in the right direction with these efforts? Is it just a case of "a few bad apples?"

9 comments:

If the government would put half of the time and effort into guarding our border against smugglers coming in to the U.S. as they do worrying about what is going out, there would be a huge drop in crime and drug trafficking in the U.S.

"What do you think it means? Do you think in Las Vegas, and in California in spite of their laws, there are a number of gun shops known to be "user friendly," places where straw purchases and clearly questionable transactions can take place?"

Err, how the HECK did you read that into this article? All it says is that it's the area where the ring operates, nothing about where they're getting the guns. It's likely they've got fingers all over the place to acquire guns from all kinds of sources including some shops, on the black market, scanning classified ads, etc. But not being a runner, I don't really know, but it's exactly what the ATF should be reducing by clamping down on the guys doing this.

Do you think in Las Vegas, and in California in spite of their laws, there are a number of gun shops known to be "user friendly," places where straw purchases and clearly questionable transactions can take place?

So if there is a number of gun shops that are user friendly, then the bad guys chose the wrong gun shop, right?

Irwin [The Gun Store owner] described a recent case in which his staff notified ATF that a customer was using a fake ID. Agents allowed the store to sell the gun — after they placed a monitoring device on the weapon.

Or perhaps, there aren't gun shops that are friendly, they actually report suspicious activities to the ATF.

Fishy Jay, The 90% nonsense is one example of something I initially bought into, in good faith, and was gradually persuaded by the commenters to change my mind. I admit it was a reluctant transition, at least in the early stages, but eventually I came around completely and actually came to agree that the true figure should be around 20%, perhaps less.

I wonder how much more cooperation the ATF would get from gun shops if they quit persecuting them for minor and non-substantial infractions? If the ATF held themselves to a similar standard (especially investigating and prosecuting failed background checks) as they do the shops who are required to run the NICS checks?

In fact, I would love to see a comparison between the level of investigation of NICS check failures or buyers falsifying 4473's, vs. investigation and punishment of dealers who do not perfectly follow the 4473 and NICS process. Does the emphasis on where their enforcement efforts are show their actual goals?